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Feb 12, 2012

REAL STEEL (2011)

How to make boxing can be accepted by young children? In thiz case, the answer is “Real Steel”. The Director Shawn Levy cleverly turns the rough boxing matches into fun, passionate and enjoyable family adventure by presenting attractive and super cool Robot figures. Levy is previously known for “Cheaper by the Dozen” (2003) and “Night at the Museum” (2006). For me, he seems to know how to roll the dice of excitement. Besides being effective in constructing believable and powerful Robot fights, thiz movie also has a heartwarming story of father and son relationship. Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is a former professional boxer who turns out to be Robot-fight promoter, just met his 11-year-old son he never knew before, Max (Dakota Goyo). Instead of Charlie teaches life lessons to his son, Max. On the contrary, Max has been inspiring his father how to win World Robot Boxing championship, but more than that is about how to win life. There are some encouraging and gratifying scenes. One of them is when Max and his Robot Atom show their dance moves. On the other side, I can almost say thiz is probably the most humane character that ever played by Hugh “Wolverine” Jackman. While the father’s character looks troubled and typical anti-hero, but it’s relatively effective to gain sympathy. Spoiler Alert! The final scene reminds us of first “Rocky” (1976) where the hero didn’t have to win the match, but he certainly has won the heart of audience. Max shows his big heart by saying, “People’s champion? Sounds pretty good to me.” Robots with a heart? Awesome!